Which Area of the Game do You Want to See Addressed First?

This is not an official poll. Catnip is concentrating on Episode 2 and I don't think that is going to change. But that shouldn't keep the community from organizing its thoughts.

I have talked to a lot of people and everyone seems to have different ideas on what aspects of SOTA need to be addressed first. If we approach SOTA as individuals, Catnip won't really have a sense of what the community wants. I have put together this poll so that we can all come to one place to voice our opinions. While at the same time, we can take the collective results of everyone's opinions and present it it as one comprehensive plan.

I am starting with general, over-arching categories. Later I will create a poll that addresses specific items in each category. I have limited number of selections for each voter to 5. I don't want people being funny by marking everything.

 

I voted for new player experience. Shroud is F2P, so whether or not people immediately like it is always going to make a big difference. SoTA's new player experience is better than it used to be, but it's still not very good.

Beyond that, I'd like to see a lot of focus on the sandbox aspects of the game. With limited staff and resources, this game is never going to be a fountain of content, so the more of a role players have in keeping each other entertained, the better.

 

there is only one thing i have ever said that i wouldnt sleep until it was complete and it is still the #1 thing i feel should be done ASAP and that is... maps. every single scene should have a functioning map.

outside of that i would put bugs at #2.

 

I voted for story but I really want them to give players more purpose, however that's achieved. Story is only one way to do that.

 

Left out a couple options...
Dungeon system
Player Quest Creation system

 

I agree for the most part but a few could be marked as "Unmapped Wilderness" like the random encounters and possibly some uninhabited swamplands

 

I agree only partially here.
Every single scene should have a functioning map - eventually.
I can perfectly live with that if my avatar wanders into an yet unvisited swamp that there is no map of it and the avatar knows only what he has heard off.
But either by purchasing a map of that area or by exploring the swamp should at some point a full map be available.

 

I am surprised so far. Quests, story, and maps are in the lead. From what I was being told, I would have thought PvP would be a landslide winner.

 

The people who would post that are probably killing each other for the right of first post.

 

Puzzles - many are too hard to figure out by myself, some require aimlessly running around, some are of the type failed/start all over. I'd like to see some puzzles that I can solve myself in about 15 minutes, some jumping puzzles, some logic puzzles (with no running around), some find the hidden spot puzzles, etc.

 

Puzzles has been added.

 

Those folks left years ago, along with the folks that wanted improvements in most major systems.

 

PVP isn't even reasonably viable until bugs/performance is fixed.
Maps really kind of fall under bugs and questing systems. Most of the quests are unreasonably difficult without map systems.
And all 3 contribute to new player experience, which would lead to retention rather than just going, yeah, game is broken.

 

You'll find, very few who play post or read the forums.

 

That does appear to be true and probably for the better. Although the forums are pretty tame these days which is a good thing.

 

Not sure about the biggest priority...

• Driftable boats in harbor./Travel between harbors

// Streamlines travel between harbors (this would be very cool)

//Can help fishing by having fishing reef scenes in or out of port.

//Random encounters make sense more for ocean travel than land travel.

 

There is so much PvP in the game that 1) it takes a fishing contest for players to actually engage in PvP and 2) there's often people begging for PvP in the /u chat.

If you look at the leaderboards you'll have a picture of that "giant" PvP community.

 

Be fair, there once was a vibrant PvP scene. Sure it was 90% veteran players ganking new players while begging the devs to give them more sheep and full loot, but it was vibrant.

 

I remember when I first started playing there was like 2 main pvp guilds, Antrax Army always fighting with Mangar. There were tons of players in each of those guilds that would battle it out. Now pvp is a shell of what it used to be since they all left.

 

PvP in MMOs has been a shell since DotA was released. PvP players that wanted fair, enjoyable and skill-based PvP fled the MMO space the moment better options showed up. Even if SotA has a normalizing system for PvP, the combat engine has enough jank that the winner would likely just be the one that rolls three crits in a row first.